[HN Gopher] Intel is trucking a 916k-pound 'Super Load' across O...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Intel is trucking a 916k-pound 'Super Load' across Ohio to its new
       fab
        
       Author : prng2021
       Score  : 223 points
       Date   : 2024-06-12 13:45 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.tomshardware.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.tomshardware.com)
        
       | leetrout wrote:
       | > 280 feet long, stretching longer than a football field
       | 
       | Seems unclear to phrase it that way when talking a about the
       | dimensions of the load and then comparing the entire transport
       | apparatus length.
       | 
       | Unsure how they jump from 280 being greater than 360.
        
         | adolph wrote:
         | Given that the author makes reference to the overall transport
         | apparatus, the correctness of the length analogy also depends
         | on if they refer to the "field of play" or the "entire field"
         | or if the word "field" was edited from "pitch."
         | 
         |  _The rectangular field of play used for American football
         | games measures 100 yards (91.44 m) long between the goal lines
         | . . . . The entire field is a rectangle 360 feet (110 m) long.
         | . ._ [0]
         | 
         |  _The pitch is rectangular in shape. . . . the longer sides are
         | called the touchlines. . . . The two touchlines are between 100
         | and 130 yards (91 and 119 metres) long . . ._ [1]
         | 
         | 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football_field
         | 
         | 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_pitch
        
         | kuu wrote:
         | 85 meters
        
       | coldpie wrote:
       | It doesn't happen often, but I always enjoy when I spot oversize
       | equipment making its way across the roads. Enormous construction
       | equipment; wind turbine blades; partial buildings. The kind of
       | stuff that requires multiple lanes, careful route planning, and
       | lead & follow cars. Gives a little glimpse of the immense effort
       | we put in to building, improving, and maintaining our society.
        
         | whartung wrote:
         | My wife didn't realize it at the time, but she got to see the
         | Space Shuttles SRBs on the freeway as they were coming into LA
         | for the Shuttle exhibit there.
         | 
         | Searching for when they moved Endeavor from LAX to the museum
         | years ago is worthwhile. That was a tight fit on LA streets.
        
           | throwup238 wrote:
           | The California Science Center has a little projector room
           | showing a timelapse of the Endeavor being delivered to its
           | final resting spot, right before you get to the big room with
           | the shuttle.
        
           | CoastalCoder wrote:
           | One time when I was flying out of DC, I got to see a space
           | shuttle on the airport tarmac. (I can't remember if it was
           | mounted on a 747 or not.) A very cool surprise.
           | 
           | This was probably in the 2009-2013 timeframe, IIRC.
        
           | sib wrote:
           | A friend of mine was the official photographer for the move
           | of the Shuttle to the museum in LA.
           | 
           | https://www.instagram.com/p/CjtJA0PPWm3/?img_index=1
        
             | bcrosby95 wrote:
             | It's actually smaller than I expected. It always appeared
             | so much larger in the launch pictures.
        
               | sib wrote:
               | I agree - they've recently repositioned it vertically (as
               | it would be launched). I was at the museum a few weeks
               | ago and it is definitely smaller than you'd think.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | The fact it could ride piggyback on a 747 shows either
               | how small the shuttle was or how big a 747 is. Either
               | way, it was cool to see
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | I wish it were feasible to occasionally take it out for a
             | parade again. What a lovely moment that was.
        
         | adolph wrote:
         | I wonder if:                 * there are oversized load
         | spotters like those folks with a hobby of keeping track of
         | aircraft or trains?       * there is economic intelligence
         | value in extracting and surfacing data from oversize load
         | permits?
        
           | elil17 wrote:
           | I'd guess that there's not a lot of stock trading value in
           | tracking oversize load permits. I think most publicly traded
           | companies announce large capital investments like new
           | factories long before trucks hit the road.
        
             | adolph wrote:
             | Maybe so. I'm aware of satellites used to measure oil tank
             | utilization [0], so sometimes odd information is
             | informative for a specific trading strategy even if it is
             | not useful in general.
             | 
             | 0. https://medium.com/planet-stories/a-beginners-guide-to-
             | calcu...
        
           | Arrath wrote:
           | For the 2nd, perhaps in identifying critical routes which may
           | be worth an extra bit of infrastructure funding for upkeep to
           | allow such important loads to continue to transit without
           | issue.
           | 
           | Then again, the need for permitting should mean that state
           | DOT's are already aware.
        
         | woodrowbarlow wrote:
         | driving the follow car seems like an interesting job. they have
         | to predict drivers and strategically position themself to
         | redirect the herd. a diesel sheepdog.
        
           | hansvm wrote:
           | Most jobs are probably super interesting for a month or
           | three. Even the simplest of jobs assume you won't be
           | productive immediately, which implies there's probably
           | something fun to learn.
           | 
           | I used to do a number of those odd tasks (jackhammering down
           | bank safes in preparation for the new tenants, ordinary pizza
           | delivery, engineering a track for people to ramp/jump their
           | mid-90s shit-mobiles, ...). I'm in tech as an ML engineer or
           | something now, but one of these years I think it'd be a ton
           | of fun to sit down and intentionally experience a hundred or
           | so jobs and get a feel for what other people do for their
           | livelihoods -- ideally in many distinct locales (e.g., where
           | I grew up it was common for people to rent/(buy-with-intent-
           | to-resell) a gas-powered bandsaw mill and produce most of the
           | raw materials for their house, partly because land was cheap,
           | partly because wages were piss-poor, and partly because there
           | was a strong "make-do" attitude where people were willing to
           | work hard to make a nice life with whatever hand they were
           | given -- the sorts of jobs you'll have access to there are
           | very different than those even a few hours away, much less a
           | few states or countries).
           | 
           | That was a bit of a minor rant. I'm in strong agreement
           | though; that sounds like a super interesting job.
        
           | bluGill wrote:
           | Typically they have radios and so the truck asks the
           | following driver to do something.
        
         | therouwboat wrote:
         | I remember one wind turbine blade transport in small country
         | roads in Finland, first car was basically driving on oncoming
         | traffic side and forced me to go as close to ditch as possible,
         | but it was good because the truck and trailer barely fit past
         | my car.
        
         | xattt wrote:
         | Prince Edward Island is connected to the mainland with a two-
         | lane 13.6 km bridge. There are designated times over the course
         | of the day when the bridge is closed to traffic and oversized
         | loads are transferred across.
         | 
         | Several deliveries are usually staged one after the other, so
         | you get to see a variety of loads if you are unlucky enough to
         | have to wait for 30-40 minutes. Most of the time, it's pre-fab
         | buildings and nothing too exciting.
        
           | indoordin0saur wrote:
           | Being on an island, it seems like loading it on a barge would
           | be more efficient.
        
             | Damogran6 wrote:
             | 'loading it on a barge' doing a lot of heavy liftin there.
             | (heh)
        
             | jamesfmilne wrote:
             | Does it have a harbour with sufficient cranes to offload
             | it, and a good enough road to transport it out?
             | 
             | And if you're going to need 4 trucks to get it out of the
             | port anyway, might as well just drive it there.
             | 
             | Sorry, no idea why I'm debating some random person on the
             | internet about an issue which has absolutely no impact on
             | me whatsoever. Sport, I guess.
        
               | kevin_thibedeau wrote:
               | It's a pretty big governance fail to have a single point
               | of failure for access to an island.
        
               | ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote:
               | more of a cost vs benefit tradeoff than a failure. It
               | could also be just a SPOF for over-sized loads, whereas
               | people have multiple routes on/off island.
        
               | xattt wrote:
               | There is redundancy in the form of a 90 minute Ro-Ro
               | ferry route to the east, as well as mothballed docks near
               | the bridge in case of an incident that closes the bridge
               | completely. I'm not sure about the capacity for oversized
               | loads on the ferry, but it's often used by trucks to
               | carry gravel and aggregate for construction.
        
               | xattt wrote:
               | There really isn't a properly craned port per se. The
               | transit time would be just as long, if not longer if it
               | was crossed by barge.
        
         | Loughla wrote:
         | During covid shutdown a massive piece of industrial machinery
         | was transported down our rural highway. It had like 10 lead and
         | chase cars and a dozen state police. The actual item had 4
         | semis with 2 pushing and 2 pulling.
         | 
         | I still have no idea what it was, but it added some excitement
         | to a very mundane April that year. I have to imagine it was a
         | very opportunistic move, since most traffic was stopped for
         | covid already.
        
           | CydeWeys wrote:
           | If it wasn't obviously a wind turbine blade (or a rocket!),
           | maybe it was a petroleum distillation column? Those are a
           | common extra-oversized highway load.
        
             | denimnerd42 wrote:
             | accident involving one in the news recently.
             | impatient/distracted driver crashed into the transport
             | truck.
             | 
             | https://www.tdtnews.com/news/business/article_c49e80c8-124b
             | -....
        
               | fathyb wrote:
               | Link for Europe: https://archive.ph/IHdjm
        
               | TiredOfLife wrote:
               | Careful with that website. I am trying to access it from
               | EU.
               | 
               | "We recognize you are attempting to access this website
               | from a country belonging to the European Economic Area
               | (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data
               | Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore access cannot
               | be granted at this time. For any issues, contact
               | webadmin@tdtnews.com or call 254-778-4444."
        
               | denimnerd42 wrote:
               | oh interesting. well if someone wants to learn more via a
               | search engine could use terms distillation column crash
               | and:
               | 
               | > The incident occurred at about 11:20 a.m. April 27 on
               | State Highway 36 near State Highway 317 in West Temple.
        
               | rat87 wrote:
               | That's not a sign of anything malicious.
               | 
               | GDPR is just a pain in the ass to implement properly, for
               | some US websites it's just much easier to ban people from
               | the EU from accessing it then risk the potentially
               | massive fines
        
               | DEADMINCE wrote:
               | Exactly this. I've seen many EU folk assume if a site
               | doesn't bother with GDPR it _must_ be malicious. When
               | really it 's just easier to avoid the EU since they
               | decided they think their laws can apply worldwide.
        
               | flemhans wrote:
               | I'm from Europe and never think of GDPR helping anything
               | much, just annoyance. I can understand why other
               | countries won't bother.
               | 
               | What happens btw if an American company just ignores GDPR
               | but still welcomes European visitors? Why would they care
               | about EU law?
        
               | DEADMINCE wrote:
               | > What happens btw if an American company just ignores
               | GDPR but still welcomes European visitors? Why would they
               | care about EU law?
               | 
               | EU claims EU law applies to US sites if a EU citizen
               | visits it. This has yet to be tested in court though. I'm
               | incredibly skeptical that it can be enforced.
        
               | idiotsecant wrote:
               | If the American company doesn't sell things to European
               | customers I don't think GDPR even applies.
        
               | DEADMINCE wrote:
               | There's not really too much need for caution; they are
               | just saying the GDPR doesn't apply to them and they would
               | rather not deal with any issues. I do the same thing with
               | many sites I manage, it's significantly less potential
               | hassle.
        
               | TacticalCoder wrote:
               | This happens semi-regularly with links posted on HN. I
               | always read it only as US websites who don't give a crap
               | about the only domain where the EU is leading: countless
               | regulation.
               | 
               | They just don't want to bother with the PITA that the
               | GDPR is and just give that failing continent that my EU
               | is the middle finger.
               | 
               | I think it's totally justified.
        
               | nvahalik wrote:
               | Oh yeah I remember that! My wife had to turn around and
               | iirc that road was closed at least 2 days.
        
         | sadhorse wrote:
         | Sadly you can't get a glimpse on the immense effort we put into
         | destroying our society. But the nunbers are available if you
         | are curious enough.
        
         | wishfish wrote:
         | For anyone interested in simulating such a drive, American
         | Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator both have DLC
         | ("Special Transport") with trucks pulling massive payloads.
         | Lead & follow vehicles. Plus a police escort. Mostly fun and a
         | little frustrating. The latter due to not-always-great AI on
         | the lead vehicles / police escorts
        
         | jauntywundrkind wrote:
         | It's definitely mind-boggling to me too.
         | 
         | I do hope Radia gets their WindRunner plane off the ground.
         | It's designed for onshore wind renewable energy, to be a plane
         | with colossal internal volume. But it's also designed to work
         | on landing strips that are much shorter & crucially primitive
         | iirc or at least much more basic, to radically expand access to
         | where we might setup wind power.
         | 
         | I have high confidence such a plane would most likely end up
         | being used for other tasks too, if created. Maybe it's not as
         | absurdly expensive as I imagine, planning & coordinating these
         | intense logistics routes, but being able to airship things to
         | interesting destinations seems super compelling to me, seems
         | like it could enable a lot of infrastructure development that's
         | simplify infeasible right now.
         | 
         | Marching into fancifulness here, but with something as big as a
         | fab, I could definitely picture an initial construction phase
         | where a sizable fraction of the land is dedicated as runway to
         | start, isn't developed, while big items are flown in. Sounds
         | wild, but could be possible! The model Radia has is off-site
         | construction, and it's not too too hard to imagine perhaps more
         | than wind turbines might benefit from this model: maybe not
         | just coolers and fabs, but perhaps even prefab building walls
         | could benefit from this.
         | 
         | https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/how-the-worlds-bigge...
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39690182
         | 
         | Maybe it's infeasible, but I could imagine something as large
         | as a fab being able to
        
       | stuff4ben wrote:
       | why would you not build that stuff onsite?
        
         | ethagknight wrote:
         | The short answer is probably that the government is throwing so
         | much money at this, and it's usually an uncapped direct
         | government expense to do offsite utility work like this for
         | these kinds of major projects. Compare to making it an "onsite
         | expense" which will have a dollar cap.
        
         | 01acheru wrote:
         | IMHO because it's not something trivial to build so you would
         | also need to build the stuff to build it. To build complex (and
         | huge) machinery you need specialized factories with lots of
         | other big and complex machinery, you cannot just create a
         | factory to build n=1 objects it's not economically viable.
        
           | bunderbunder wrote:
           | Though, perhaps they meant "assemble".
           | 
           | A lot of other big things, like wind turbines, are shipped in
           | smaller pieces and assembled onsite. At least according to a
           | family member of mine who works on them, you even get
           | slightly different designs that are specifically tailored to
           | the local highway transport regulations in different
           | countries.
           | 
           | That said, I think in general you're right that the story is
           | that it's just cheaper to do it this way. I just think that
           | assuming you'd need to build actual factories is a bit
           | drastic. But perhaps even getting the equipment needed for
           | final assembly onsite is prohibitively expensive compared to
           | just transporting the fully-assembled equipment.
        
             | 01acheru wrote:
             | Well if they mean assemble instead of build the things
             | change a bit, but anyway even when talking about big and
             | complex things there are big and complex things that can be
             | "easily" split into pieces and assembled at a later time
             | and other things that cannot be split so easily so much
             | more resources are needed to assemble the thing in its
             | final form.
             | 
             | Just guesses it's not something I'm into.
        
       | jjice wrote:
       | Tangential, but what's the state of semiconductor fabs in the US?
       | Looking at this Wikipedia article [0], there are quite a lot.
       | That said, all but three (assuming I counted correctly) are
       | pre-2020. Is the push for fabs in the US specifically to have
       | modern, sophisticated fabs?
       | 
       | My initial understanding of needing more fabs in the US was
       | mainly for embedded stuff like for military, automobiles, and
       | that kind of thing. Is this push actually more so for higher end
       | fabrication for modern non-embedded use?
       | 
       | Whatever the case is, having some more domestic production
       | (especially for something as valuable as microprocessors) seems
       | like a big win for any nation. I'm looking forward to seeing how
       | the US does with chip fabrication. I don't expect them (us?) to
       | become the dominant player, but I am bullish on US chip
       | production.
       | 
       | [0]
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabricat...
        
         | dfxm12 wrote:
         | You can find context for the recent push here:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIPS_and_Science_Act
        
           | jjice wrote:
           | Thank you, this is exactly what I needed!
        
         | Workaccount2 wrote:
         | Being able to produce state of the art semiconductors is
         | arguably the most important manufacturing ability for a country
         | to have. The US does not want to be dependent on Taiwan or
         | South Korea to build what is nowadays a cornerstone economic
         | driver (compute) and cornerstone defense tool (compute).
         | 
         | So to put it simply; the US wants to be sure it can still make
         | H100's even if the rest of the world goes to shit.
        
           | krisoft wrote:
           | > Being able to produce state of the art semiconductors is
           | arguably the most important manufacturing ability for a
           | country to have.
           | 
           | I don't think that is quite right. It is a very important
           | ability. I don't think it is the "most important" ability. If
           | you have semiconductor fabs but not dry docks to build
           | capital ships you will be in for a world of hurt. If you have
           | semiconductor fabs but not agriculture to feed your people
           | you will be in a world of hurt. If you have semiconductor
           | fabs but not the ability to cast solid-fuelled rocket engines
           | for your missiles you will be in a world of hurt.
           | 
           | It is one of the many important abilities. The reason we are
           | talking about it is not because it is the "most important",
           | but because it is at danger of being lost. We don't talk
           | about the other equally very important abilities (like dry
           | docks for giant ships, agriculture to feed the nation, or
           | solid fuel casting, or a myriad of other things) because
           | nobody worries about those going away.
        
             | ivalm wrote:
             | I am not sure capital ships are as critical now. With
             | drones/hypersonics it seems they are too vulnerable for use
             | in any peer conflict. Pretty sure if China/US were to wage
             | war in 5 years then all the capital ships from both sides
             | in the conflict zone will be scrap within 24 hours. Send
             | 100 hypersonics per ship and one will hit.
        
               | buildbot wrote:
               | The parents point is more that for a functioning state,
               | you need all of those things. If one of those things is
               | at risk externally, bringing that one internal first
               | makes sense.
               | 
               | Carriers are still very important to US force projection
               | and hypersonic missiles are really overblown. We also
               | seem to be readily able to take out existing hypersonic
               | ballistics.
               | 
               | Also a 5 year war with the US and China that starts with
               | a multiple thousands of missles? That's just going to be
               | a nuclear exchange and last not very long at all if one
               | sides detects any launch like that.
        
               | ethbr1 wrote:
               | We'll see how the SinkEx on the ex-USS Tawara goes at
               | RimPac 2024.
               | 
               | I'd be surprised if they don't use some ASBMs.
               | 
               | But larger ships are built to take an incredible amount
               | of punishment. It typically takes a heavyweight torpedo
               | to crack them (hence why ASW is a primary skill set for
               | navies). The physics of getting a 1/4 ton+ non-nuclear
               | warhead (torpedo class) highly maneuvering are rough.
               | 
               | And there's a reason the Navy developed and deployed
               | SM-6, and is now adding SEWIP Block III...
               | 
               | https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=rimpac+sinkex
        
               | generic92034 wrote:
               | Just recently a major ship was sunk, though:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Moskva
               | 
               | Did they make mistakes?
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Are you asking if the underfunded Russian military made
               | mistakes in manning a ship, building a ship, designing a
               | ship? Surely, it was meant to be rhetorical
        
               | bee_rider wrote:
               | Technically, the Russian military didn't make any
               | mistakes in designing or building that ship since it was
               | inherited from the Soviet Union. Although make the
               | mistake was having it still in operation...
        
               | ethbr1 wrote:
               | Still having a conscript-based navy?
               | 
               | Loading their capital ships decks with exposed, extremely
               | large anti-ship missiles?
               | 
               | And they likely still would have been able to tow it back
               | to port, if the weather hasn't been bad.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | > Send 100 hypersonics per ship and one will hit.
               | 
               | What about all of those submerged ships that will lay
               | waste to their opponent with the weapons they carry?
        
               | ivalm wrote:
               | Sure, subs also have a place. I'm just saying that
               | conventional warfare with high tech weapons favors
               | resource decentralization. Right now things are easier to
               | blow up than defend.
        
             | Workaccount2 wrote:
             | Arguably the most important, not the most important. You
             | can make a strong argument for why it is, is all that I am
             | saying.
        
           | elzbardico wrote:
           | Tha vast majority of military chip requirements can be met
           | with old processes. You don't need a 5nm chip with a 13
           | billion transistors in a F-35 or for the guidance module in a
           | cruise missile.
           | 
           | Very modern chips are more suited for intelligence work no
           | weapons systems per se. The physics of flight, artillery and
           | balistic missiles is pretty much well understood, we don't
           | need machine learning for that. Some modern systems use
           | computer vision as a terminal guidance system, but again, you
           | don't need state of art semis for that.
        
             | yyhhsj0521 wrote:
             | I'm not a military expert by any means, but I imagine 5nm
             | chips/ML are immensely useful in designing F-35 and cruise
             | missiles.
        
               | 4gotunameagain wrote:
               | For CDF (Computational Fluid Dynamics) yes, but ML not so
               | much. This is a relatively new technology and this sector
               | is slow to change.
               | 
               | Add in the fact of the black box nature of ML, and it
               | becomes a pain to anything that requires a certification.
        
             | Workaccount2 wrote:
             | The defense department is far larger than missiles and
             | planes.
             | 
             | Also nuclear weapons simulation is what keeps the DoE
             | continuously buying new world leading super computers.
        
             | vel0city wrote:
             | Even from a designing a chip for ordinance perspective,
             | there's a lot of meat on the bone to make chips just that
             | much more accurate and that much less susceptible to
             | interference. And making those more and more reliable,
             | cheaper, and smaller is also a big deal.
             | 
             | Stuff like this wasn't realistic from systems made in the
             | 90s or even 00's.
             | 
             | https://youtu.be/vY9rJBL1S2Y?si=Dq1QJp90Up6UKLaQ
        
         | vel0city wrote:
         | Sometimes the fab location might be older but the fab itself
         | might have gone through much retooling throughout the years. I
         | doubt the TI fabs in Sherman and Dallas in 1965/1966 are
         | running all the same equipment as back then.
         | 
         | There are a lot of interesting fabs in the US making some
         | pretty bleeding edge products, but often not digital
         | microprocessor chips. A lot of the more bleeding edge are
         | analog/RF kind of stuff, especially GaN and GaAs stuff.
        
           | brewdad wrote:
           | A modern fab is basically a super, super clean warehouse. The
           | equipment and layout can easily be changed up for a new
           | generation of products.
        
         | bee_rider wrote:
         | Something I think I should have better understanding of:
         | 
         | My impression is that automotive and military applications
         | mostly use older, more mature, cheaper modes. Are the fabs for
         | these older nodes mostly re-purposes formerly cutting edge
         | fabs, or do they go around building brand new (higher volume?)
         | fabs for these nodes?
         | 
         | I guess I'm wondering if the capacity to build automotive chips
         | in 10 years will be limited by the ability to build cutting-
         | edge chips nowadays. Or maybe if TI (or whoever) can, like,
         | borrow a couple near-retirement TSMC guys in a couple years and
         | spin up some brand new old-tech fabs.
        
           | jandrewrogers wrote:
           | It depends on the application. Some use an unconventional
           | process because of application requirements e.g. radiation
           | hardening. Special purpose fabs are often subsidized to some
           | extent to keep them running. Also, the US military will
           | upgrade the silicon of existing systems if the situation
           | warrants it e.g. it is cheaper to use more modern silicon
           | than to maintain a fab for the old silicon.
           | 
           | Most weapon systems use old silicon that needs to be robust
           | in all military operational environments. They don't benefit
           | from having more modern silicon. Terminal guidance systems on
           | hypersonic missiles that do kinetic intercept of other
           | hypersonic missiles often use something like a MIPS
           | R3000/4000 class CPU and a DSP of similar vintage.
           | 
           | ISR systems (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance)
           | benefit from state-of-the-art silicon because that data is
           | extremely large and analysis is time sensitive. Since
           | pervasive ISR at scale is a cornerstone of modern military
           | operations, having the best silicon and software for this
           | type of computation is strategic. In these cases, it is often
           | the latest commodity silicon.
        
         | CoastalCoder wrote:
         | Since we're talking about chip fabs as strategic military
         | assets, I'm curious how vulnerable they are to sabotage.
         | 
         | E.g., how difficult would it be for a nation state to damage
         | one in a way that requires a major replacement part from ASML,
         | with long lead time?
         | 
         | And with or without it clearly being an intentional act of
         | sabotage?
        
         | briffle wrote:
         | Intel is costantly modernizing one of its fabs in PDX. From
         | what I have heard from a neighbor working at it, Intel brings
         | most new equipment here, uses it for a certain time, then
         | packages it up and ships to Arizona, so they don't have to pay
         | sales tax on it, since its now used...
        
           | brewdad wrote:
           | Intel gets a sweet break on property taxes too, basically
           | paying a flat fee per year. Otherwise, they could never
           | afford the taxes on $20-40 billion of equipment in a single
           | fab. The state makes up for it by taxing 20,000 well paid
           | employees at a 10% income tax rate.
        
         | unregistereddev wrote:
         | Intel has older fabs on that list - including one that was
         | built in 2003 - that are capable of 7nm production processes.
         | Some of the older domestic plants have been significantly
         | updated over the years.
        
         | burnte wrote:
         | It's mostly about having enough capacity so if China goes nuts
         | and takes over Taiwan the world isn't held hostage.
        
       | soared wrote:
       | > Bruning shared that other companies are piggybacking on the
       | super load route plans now that accommodations have already been
       | made
       | 
       | I would've thought the ability to do a super load or not
       | determined a lot of your mfg/etc process. Seems surprising a
       | company could switch over to a super load because it's now
       | available.
        
         | gehwartzen wrote:
         | Makes sense though if the route is already getting prepped for
         | one load. It's a huge amount of work from logistical and
         | coordinating effort (trains getting re-routed, hazmats cleared,
         | roads shut down, etc) to get the route setup. May as well send
         | any other extremely large shipments along while it's cleared.
         | 
         | Lots of companies have huge pieces of equipment sitting at
         | factory X that they would rather have at factory Y for example.
        
         | crote wrote:
         | There are plenty of applications where a single load would be
         | more convenient for one way or another, but it's _possible_ to
         | do it in multiple loads with a final assembly step at the
         | destination.
         | 
         | Nobody is going to spend months of planning and many millions
         | of dollars on alterations to save a few grand on a one-off
         | project. But hey, if someone else has already done the planning
         | and alterations, why not piggyback off of that and save
         | yourself some money?
        
       | theandrewbailey wrote:
       | I grew up less than half an hour away from the fab site. Back
       | then, if you told me that this would happen, I wouldn't believe
       | you.
        
       | yellow_lead wrote:
       | This may seem like a weird question but I wonder how much it is
       | worth? Presumably it's very expensive and precise equipment. I
       | wonder if it's protected from gunfire in transit.
        
         | mhb wrote:
         | Gunfire is the threat that comes to mind? Weird.
        
           | bunderbunder wrote:
           | I can totally see someone taking a potshot at it just for a
           | lark. Heck, I can see someone doing it for the purpose of
           | creating content for their TikTok or YouTube channel.
           | 
           | It's not like something like that has never happened before:
           | https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/santa-barbara-county-
           | ma...
        
             | reaperman wrote:
             | Most of the large petrochemical tanks on the Gulf Coast
             | have bullet dings in them. Folks just like to take potshots
             | at stuff. Luckily the steel of these tanks are already more
             | than thick enough to handle most small-arms fire. They just
             | take the damage into account when they do corrosion
             | monitoring every few years (those impact spots tend to be
             | thinner afterwards, of course).
        
           | SoftTalker wrote:
           | Have you been thru rural Ohio?
        
           | ls65536 wrote:
           | It has happened before with other kinds of large cargo (the
           | type that you really wouldn't want to have undesired holes
           | in): https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=276419
        
             | pjc50 wrote:
             | I'd heard about this, and wondered how America squares it
             | with its ridiculously large and expensive War on Terror.
        
               | dghlsakjg wrote:
               | It should be pretty clear after a two decades that it is
               | a war on islam aligned unfriendly governments.
               | 
               | The US largely doesn't take internal Christian terror
               | seriously.
               | 
               | And we certainly don't take rural whites acting
               | recklessly with guns to be anything but the free
               | expression of inalienable rights.
        
           | vundercind wrote:
           | Ever seen a stop sign in rural America?
           | 
           | Quite a few folks like shooting stuff and have very poor
           | judgement.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | I've heard tales that Boeing's transporting of fuselages
           | rarely made it to the destination without bullet holes.
        
         | dr_orpheus wrote:
         | > I wonder if it's protected from gunfire in transit
         | 
         | I would guess that it isn't. My assumption (without any data
         | backing this up) is that making a specific, super rugged
         | transport container would cost more (along with the additional
         | logistics of it) than the insurance on it.
        
         | bob1029 wrote:
         | I don't know that the entire volume is considered "precise".
         | Most of it should be cryogenic equipment (compressors, pipes,
         | etc), packed in some kind of insulation. If anti-material
         | rounds did penetrate the load, on-site repairs might be
         | feasible. Contrast this with something like an EUV tool, which
         | would probably be instant scrap if this kind of attack were
         | successful.
        
         | teitoklien wrote:
         | most definitely protected, and very expensive insurance too.
         | 
         | > gunfire in transit
         | 
         | Not just gunfire, they need to protect it from
         | 
         | - Climate Activists, blocking road and sabotaging the
         | instrument, like they destroy old paintings at museums and art
         | galleries to bring awareness via headlines [1]
         | 
         | - Foreign Adversary Intentionally Sabotaging Equipment to
         | prevent America from leading in Semiconductor ( Had happened to
         | India's SCL silicon lab when they were catching up with market
         | in 1980s ) [2]
         | 
         | - And ofcourse Gun Slingers too
         | 
         | [1](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/famo
         | u...)
         | 
         | [2](https://youtu.be/isBYV6QWDIo?si=_g_0uYoXqiekhh9n)
        
           | swores wrote:
           | > _- Climate Activists, blocking road and sabotaging the
           | instrument, like they destroy old paintings at museums and
           | art galleries to bring awareness via headlines [1]_
           | 
           | Saying they "destroyed" any paintings is plain wrong, you've
           | either not read past the headline or you're deliberately
           | trying to make climate protesters look bad.
           | 
           | While I'm aware of many art/museum related climate protests,
           | I haven't heard of a single one that damaged any art - all of
           | them, like the example you linked to, the protestors chose
           | targets where they could avoid doing any real harm. In the
           | story you linked they threw paint over a glass case that
           | protects the painting, not over the painting itself.
           | 
           | So it definitely wouldn't surprise me if climate protestors
           | decided to delay the trip by temporarily blocking a road, but
           | it would be extremely surprising if they did anything worse
           | than splashing paint on something that does no harm other
           | than needing a cleaning crew to get it off.
        
             | sib wrote:
             | https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/07/arts/design/rokeby-
             | venus-...
        
             | DwnVoteHoneyPot wrote:
             | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-68515368
        
               | swores wrote:
               | The other comment, from sib, already shows that there is
               | an example I'd missed of a climate protest leading to a
               | piece of art getting damaged - albeit in a minor way (and
               | I think sounds like it was accidental too, that they were
               | again aiming to damage the case not the painting itself -
               | otherwise they would have done more than light scratching
               | / would've picked a painting without that type of strong
               | case).
               | 
               | But your link isn't about climate protestors at all, and
               | it's barely even about art - the painting those people
               | targeted wasn't picked for being a well known and well
               | liked picture, but because of the politics 100 years ago
               | of the person in the painting.
               | 
               | Quite a different situation, and entirely different
               | reason for protest.
        
         | aftbit wrote:
         | Almost certainly no. Probably not protected from meteor hits or
         | car crashes either.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | The 10mph travel speed under heavy escort seems like car
           | crashes wouldn't be fatal.
        
             | aftbit wrote:
             | The Dali hit the Key Bridge at under 10 mph.
             | 
             | The kinetic energy of a 415000 kg object going 4.5 m/s is
             | about equivalent to a 2000 kg object going 65 m/s = 145
             | mph.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Something that big in water trying to stop vs something
               | on the ground with lots of friction contact with the
               | ground is two entirely different things.
               | 
               | I'm way less concerned about this thing hitting something
               | moving at 10mph than I am someone else driving their
               | thing into this bigger thing. It would have to be a
               | massive thing to budge it.
        
         | galdosdi wrote:
         | What? It's self protecting. How is a thief going to fence a
         | million pounds of heavy equipment, and get away from a convoy
         | of dozens of people?
         | 
         | As soon as they turn onto some smaller road they're going to
         | run into power lines. If it's so expensive for Intel/Ohio DOT
         | to move it, it's not gonna be any easier or cheaper for a
         | thief.
         | 
         | This is like, what if someone stole the copper wiring from the
         | white house
         | 
         | Fun to think about though. Fun weird question.
        
           | swores wrote:
           | The comment you replied to was talking about risk of people
           | damaging it, not running off with it.
           | 
           | And using your white house example, while I'm sure people
           | stealing copper cabling from it isn't considered a high risk,
           | the possibility of people using guns to shoot at the white
           | house certainly is something they take quite seriously!
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | I think you just gave Netflix Studios their next heist
           | movie/series.
        
         | j_walter wrote:
         | I would guess based on their description this is not expensive
         | or precise...at least compared to the cleanroom tooling like an
         | EUV tool. This is probably a gas tower that is used to produce
         | high purity gas on site (like N2). They are large and often
         | transported from where they are built. TSMC AZ had one
         | delivered from Texas a few years ago (or more precisely Linde
         | had it delivered to their site next door to TSMC AZ). You can
         | see the large towers in the pictures linked below.
         | 
         | https://www.phxind.com/projects/linde-spectra-30
        
       | secondcoming wrote:
       | 916k lbs = 415k kg
        
         | Workaccount2 wrote:
         | 450Mg! Poor megagram never gets any love!
        
         | Alghranokk wrote:
         | Which to be even clearer is 415 metric tons.
         | 
         | For context: typical max weight for a truck in the US of A is
         | 80k lbs, or a bit over 36 metric tons.
        
         | PaywallBuster wrote:
         | > Big rigs are limited by federal regulation to a maximum
         | loaded weight of 80,000 pounds including cargo
         | 
         | over 10x heavier than the maximum allowed by law
        
           | bowsamic wrote:
           | It's split up into 18 separate loads
        
             | npongratz wrote:
             | > _It 's split up into 18 separate loads_
             | 
             | TFA suggests it's not split up:
             | 
             | > Intel will put a 916,000-pound "super load" on the road
             | in Ohio on Wednesday, for a trip that will cover
             | approximately 150 miles in nine days and snarl traffic for
             | over a week...
             | 
             | > Four of these loads, including the one hitting the road
             | now, weigh around 900,000 pounds -- that's 400 metric tons,
             | or 76 elephants.
             | 
             | > Intel's 916,000-pound shipment is a "cold box,"...
             | 
             | EDIT: Further information in the ODOT advisory detailing
             | the schedule of this one shipment confirms 916k pounds is
             | _not_ split among multiple loads:
             | 
             | https://www.transportation.ohio.gov/about-us/traffic-
             | advisor...
             | 
             | > This is the twelfth of nearly two dozen "super loads"...
             | This load... measures approximately 23' tall, 20' wide,
             | 280' long, and weighs 916,000 pounds.
        
             | swores wrote:
             | If that were the case the story would just be "18 lorries
             | are going to do a boring trip", and there wouldn't need to
             | be any special plans made for road use at all.
        
               | bowsamic wrote:
               | Well you can ask them why they thought it was such an
               | interesting story to post. But yes the article discussing
               | the schedule in detail says it is split up across 18
               | loads
        
               | allannienhuis wrote:
               | One of the individual loads was at this scale. There are
               | multiple 'super loads'. The article doesn't say that a
               | single 'super load' was split up into 18 parts.
        
         | Ylpertnodi wrote:
         | Eddie Hall lifted 500kg. Trained for years. 415kg is a heavy
         | beast.
        
           | kayge wrote:
           | It is heavy indeed, and unfortunately there weren't ~1000
           | Eddie Halls available for this trip so they had to settle for
           | trucks :)
        
         | Ylpertnodi wrote:
         | Eddie Hall lifted 500kg. Trained for years. 415kg is a heavy
         | beast.
        
       | notesinthefield wrote:
       | For other Ohioans who were wondering about this : ODOT started
       | talking about the shipping routes a couple weeks ago and contrary
       | to the article, we do have a timetable here :
       | https://www.transportation.ohio.gov/about-us/traffic-advisor...
       | 
       | Im going between Cincinnati and Columbus several times over the
       | next three weeks and am not looking forward to this even though
       | it seems theyre taking a mostly out of the way route through the
       | SE Ohio farming towns.
        
         | TimMeade wrote:
         | It's going within about 10 miles of my mothers house... Not
         | sure she would care... But i'll tell her!
        
         | Severian wrote:
         | Oh god, 33 and Gender Road. That's not going to be pretty for
         | traffic.
        
         | jcranmer wrote:
         | I've put together a rough map of the route it's taking here:
         | https://maps.app.goo.gl/MPubWurLDu4XjMQJ7 (unfortunately, the
         | limitations of Google Maps keeps me from properly marking the
         | final bouncing between Mink Rd and 310--it continues east past
         | Mink Rd to go up OH-310, then returns to Mink Rd on US-40 then
         | returns to OH-310 on OH-16 then back to Mink Rd on OH-161. Not
         | sure why it's not sticking to one or the other way the entire
         | last stretch.)
         | 
         | If you're going between Cincinnati and Columbus, you should be
         | absolutely nowhere near this route, as it's going nowhere near
         | I-71.
        
           | Arrath wrote:
           | > Not sure why it's not sticking to one or the other way the
           | entire last stretch.
           | 
           | Generally, low overpasses or turns that would be
           | problematically tight.
           | 
           | E: Checking street view, for example: that Mink Rd overpass
           | over I-70 is likely either too narrow or not rated for the
           | weight.
           | 
           | https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9506421,-82.7300744,3a,75y,1.
           | ..
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | Upon first look at the map, I thought it had to have loaded
             | wrong to not see it starting at what I expected as a port
             | city. From someone that grew up around rivers that can
             | pretty much run dry during the summers, it's amazing to me
             | that a river runs that wide/deep that far inland to a land
             | locked area to be able to accommodate a ship of this size.
        
               | jcranmer wrote:
               | I couldn't find the exact port they're starting at, so I
               | guessed a boat ramp just to put a pin somewhere. The only
               | places near Manchester, OH I could find that looked like
               | they had some kind of port facilities were what appeared
               | to be a power plant, although per Wikipedia, the plant
               | has been decommissioned, so it's possible that part of
               | the site was reused for the offloading facility.
               | 
               | The Ohio River is famously an easily navigable river;
               | there's only one natural falls along the route from
               | Pittsburgh (the confluence of the Allegheny and the
               | Monongahela rivers) to Cairo (where it joins the
               | Mississippi). It provides the plurality of the water to
               | the Mississippi River, a little less than half of the
               | total discharge. I don't know where you grew up, but the
               | river is more comparable (in European terms) to the
               | Rhine, Danube, Dnieper, Don, or Volga than something like
               | the Thames or the Seine rivers.
        
               | Arrath wrote:
               | > so it's possible that part of the site was reused for
               | the offloading facility.
               | 
               | Quite likely, there's a fair chance that large items for
               | the power plant (like the steam turbines) were brought in
               | by the river in the first place.
        
         | briffle wrote:
         | I guess i'm not sure why they would transport this in the
         | middle of the day.
         | 
         | Seems like starting at 8pm would mean less snarl, less traffic
         | to deal with, etc.
        
           | ethbr1 wrote:
           | In my experience, that's the difference between southern and
           | northern state DOTs.
           | 
           | Southern states do their work from 8pm-midnight+.
           | 
           | Northern states do it from 9am-5pm.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | Southern states have temps >100deg so the night time work
             | is also just for the survival of the workers. (only a
             | slight exaggeration)
             | 
             | Also, night time is dark. It makes things much more
             | difficult than it needs to be at the convenience of some
             | drivers in a car. Natural daylight is just so much better
             | than having to have portable lights.
        
               | immibis wrote:
               | Southern states are the ones where it's illegal to give
               | water to workers - I can't imagine they care very much
               | about worker survival.
        
               | cityofdelusion wrote:
               | This is false, it is perfectly legal to give water to
               | workers in the South (and in every other state).
        
               | ethbr1 wrote:
               | Parent is stretching a few bits of actual news to
               | absurdity, for rhetorical effect.
               | 
               | Conservative state governments battling liberal
               | city/metro governments for power. E.g.
               | https://apnews.com/article/texas-death-star-water-breaks-
               | con...
               | 
               | Some rather draconian "election reforms." E.g.
               | https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/18/politics/georgia-election-
               | law...
        
               | brewdad wrote:
               | Yes. Likely there are multiple points along this route
               | where the vehicle will need to be aligned just so in
               | order to safely make a turn or clear an obstacle. Far
               | easier to do those maneuvers in daylight rather than risk
               | compromising the cargo.
               | 
               | It's road construction season in Ohio anyway so most
               | drivers are going to face a significant delay along their
               | journey regardless of when this load gets moved.
        
       | o283j5o8j wrote:
       | "The box is 23 feet tall, 20 feet wide, and 280 feet long,
       | stretching longer than a football field."
       | 
       | Author doesn't understand football.
        
         | swores wrote:
         | Either 280ft is longer than whatever type of football field
         | they're thinking of, or it's not. No understanding of football
         | needed for that.
         | 
         | You haven't said what part of it you think is wrong - though I
         | do believe that both American Football and Association Football
         | (aka "soccer", or "real football" :P) do both play on pitches a
         | bit longer than 280ft.
        
       | neilv wrote:
       | This is worth watching (2m41s): LA Times, "Space shuttle
       | Endeavour's trek across LA: Timelapse"
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdqZyACCYZc&t=3s
        
       | bell-cot wrote:
       | > Intel's 916,000-pound shipment is a "cold box," a self-standing
       | air-processor structure that facilitates the cryogenic technology
       | needed to fabricate semiconductors. The box is 23 feet tall, 20
       | feet wide, and 280 feet long...
       | 
       | The weight gives Tom a big number for his headline - but 99% of
       | the problem with this load is the _dimensions_ - which are too
       | big for normal railroads. (Yes, the weight is also large enough
       | to rule out using a heavy-lift helicopter.)
       | 
       | Vs. a single 1940's-era steam locomotive+tender could weigh over
       | 1,200,000 lbs. Modern locomotives - where electronic control
       | makes it very easy, flexible, and wage-saving to operate 'em in
       | sets - generally weigh a bit over 400,000 lbs. per.
        
         | black6 wrote:
         | Too long for even the largest Schnabel car in the US (maybe
         | worldwide.)
        
           | bell-cot wrote:
           | Given the height and width (23' and 20'), I suspect the
           | length doesn't matter much. Customizing a Schnabel car is
           | plausible. Raising overpasses, widening tunnels, etc...not so
           | plausible.
        
         | giarc wrote:
         | "and 280 feet long"
         | 
         | Is that an error?
        
           | xboxnolifes wrote:
           | Don't think so. The article emphasizes that it's nearly as
           | long as a football field. So, if it's an error then it's with
           | their source.
        
             | knodi123 wrote:
             | Huh. I usually push against the use of american-style
             | weirdo units to describe things, but I guess one benefit is
             | that if you specify multiple different units, you get
             | automatic protection against typos!
        
               | hermitdev wrote:
               | At least when Americans say a football field length, it's
               | a precise number: 100 yds. Not so with soccer fields...
        
             | hnburnsy wrote:
             | Yeah, I would not classify 78% of a football field (120
             | yards or 360 feet) as nearly.
        
           | a1o wrote:
           | The website posted has the picture not corresponding to the
           | actual load.
           | 
           | Check the picture here:
           | https://www.truckersnews.com/news/article/15677391/expect-
           | de...
           | 
           | It appears to indeed be 280 feet long.
        
         | c_o_n_v_e_x wrote:
         | I'm guessing that is an air separation unit. An ASU takes
         | ambient air from the atmosphere and separates it into its
         | constituent components like O2, N2, argon, etc.
        
       | throwaway2037 wrote:
       | Does anyone know why Intel select Ohio over Oregon or Arizona? I
       | tried to Google for it, but the sources are awful and nothing
       | definitive. Intel has been quite tight-lipped about it. I saw
       | this quote, which seems to be hiding something: <<"I want to give
       | a lot of credit to the governor and lieutenant governor. They
       | pursued us very aggressively," he [Intel CEO Gelsinger] said.>>
       | What exactly is meant by "pursued us very aggressively"? I can
       | only guess.
        
         | mindcrime wrote:
         | > What exactly is meant by "pursued us very aggressively"?
         | 
         | You can pretty much bet it means "economic development"
         | incentives of some sort, combined with a fair amount of
         | personal glad-handing. Intel probably got all sorts of tax-
         | breaks, credits, grants, and FSM-knows what-else as part of the
         | deal to pick Ohio. And the Governor and others probably took
         | Intel execs to plenty of nice steak-houses, strip-joints,
         | exclusive parties, yadda, yadda, yadda.
        
           | CoastalCoder wrote:
           | I hope Pat Gelsinger has more integrity than that, but who
           | knows.
        
             | justin66 wrote:
             | You could have a pretty bleak outlook on government-
             | corporate graft and corruption and still recognize how
             | ridiculous the idea of Mike DeWine and Pat Gelsinger in a
             | strip club is.
        
               | tonetegeatinst wrote:
               | Perhaps they were bribed using high purity sand or the
               | governor "gifted" some high purity silicon ingots?
               | 
               | Unrealistic but it would be histerical to imagine sand or
               | ingot bribery
        
               | mindcrime wrote:
               | _still recognize how ridiculous the idea of Mike DeWine
               | and Pat Gelsinger in a strip club is._
               | 
               | I'm not literally claiming that we can state with
               | certainty that Mike DeWine or Pat Gelsinger went to a
               | strip club. That's just an example to illustrate a more
               | general point.
        
               | justin66 wrote:
               | I don't think you really illustrated anything. (but don't
               | get me wrong, the image Mike DeWine and Pat Gelsinger in
               | a strip club is _extremely funny_ ) Ohio politicians are
               | rather more expensive than your comment implies.
               | 
               | If one wants to dig into how actual corruption of this
               | sort works in Ohio during its current GOP supermajority
               | era, they ought to start here:
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_nuclear_bribery_scanda
               | l
        
             | istjohn wrote:
             | Well Gov. Mike Dewine and the Ohio Republican lawmakers
             | aren't above a little graft:
             | 
             | > The Ohio nuclear bribery scandal (2020) is a political
             | scandal in Ohio involving allegations that electric utility
             | company FirstEnergy paid roughly $60 million to Generation
             | Now, a 501(c)(4) organization purportedly controlled by
             | Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives Larry
             | Householder in exchange for passing a $1.3 billion bailout
             | for the nuclear power operator.
             | 
             | ...
             | 
             | > In July 2019, the House passed House Bill 6, which
             | increased electricity rates and provided that money as a
             | $150 million per year subsidy for the Perry and Davis-Besse
             | nuclear plants, subsidized coal-fired power plants, and
             | reduced subsidies for renewable energy and energy
             | efficiency. Governor Mike DeWine signed the bill the day it
             | passed.[0]
             | 
             | 0. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_nuclear_bribery_sca
             | ndal
        
         | osnium123 wrote:
         | Intel is also expanding in Arizona and Oregon. The benefit of
         | going to a third state is that you get two more Senators
         | rooting for you and helping out with tax breaks. In addition,
         | there are a lot of course excellent universities in the region
         | to recruit from. Ohio also has water and is seismically stable.
        
           | bsder wrote:
           | AFRL is also nearby in Ohio.
        
         | gostsamo wrote:
         | Tax incentives, usually. Add to it government cooperation
         | through sped up permits and the like.
        
         | bregma wrote:
         | What happens on the back 9 stays on the back 9, I'm afraid.
        
         | bee_rider wrote:
         | Oregon has gotten a little pricy lately, right?
         | 
         | I wonder if Ohio is in a sweet spot--low property values but
         | still not far from the Megalopolis in the grand scheme of
         | things.
        
         | snypher wrote:
         | Oregon is relatively close to the Pacific coast...
        
         | hindsightbias wrote:
         | "The state government is providing incentives in three chunks:
         | a $600 million reshoring grant that reflects the higher cost of
         | building these factories in America; $691 million in
         | infrastructure improvements; and $650 million over 30 years in
         | state income tax incentives based on the number of workers
         | Intel hires."
         | 
         | Plus 15 congressmen, 2 senators are going to want their part of
         | the Federal rain money.
         | 
         | https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/manufacturing/2024/0...
        
         | mikey_p wrote:
         | This area of Ohio has been exploding lately, and within a few
         | miles of the Intel site, are AWS, Google and Meta data centers.
         | Microsoft just bought 200 acres within a stones throw of the
         | new Intel campus as well, possibly for an Azure DC. Not sure
         | how all that relates, but it sure is messing with housing
         | prices in the area.
         | 
         | https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/microsoft-buys-20...
        
         | brcmthrowaway wrote:
         | No water in Arizona, Oregon has the ocean
        
       | Remmy wrote:
       | They've all passed through my town. They coordinated it all with
       | our local sheriff's office and sent out notifications well in
       | advance so people would know to take alternate routes.
        
       | chrsw wrote:
       | Am I way out of line to assume TSMC will be well past the
       | capability of this fab when in finally comes on line? Not when
       | the current schedule says it will be ready but when the first
       | actual production wafer comes out of the factory.
        
         | cogman10 wrote:
         | Perhaps, though fab advancements everywhere have slowed to a
         | crawl. TSMC might not be significantly more advanced than what
         | it is today when this fab comes online.
         | 
         | I believe we are rapidly approaching the end of
         | miniaturization. Even now, node sizes are mostly fabricated
         | just to keep advertising smaller numbers.
        
           | chrsw wrote:
           | The end of miniaturization I can believe. But the end of
           | performance, I'm not so sure.
        
             | cogman10 wrote:
             | I agree, there's definitely more percentages to gain and
             | possibly even new fab techniques that can result in more
             | densely packed chips using less power.
             | 
             | However, those will (likely) be exploitable regardless of
             | when the fab was built. The limiting factor isn't likely
             | going to be the fab equipment so much as the techniques
             | used.
             | 
             | That's where I don't know that bigger better fabs is going
             | to be the arms race that it has traditionally been.
        
         | bitwize wrote:
         | > Am I way out of line to assume TSMC will be well past the
         | capability of this fab when in finally comes on line?
         | 
         | Maybe, but Apple will own all of that advanced capacity. Those
         | of us who have not bought into the Apple ecosystem will have to
         | slum it with lesser chip processes, which this fab will help
         | with the demand for.
        
       | JasserInicide wrote:
       | With semiconductor manufacturing being overseas (where lower
       | wages are) for much of the past decades, how will Intel/TSMC
       | opening up locations in the US affect prices? I imagine this just
       | means everything will just get more expensive.
        
         | zaphod12 wrote:
         | semiconductor manufacturing is highly skilled - ie the folks
         | over seas were already well paid. It was a lot more about
         | approvals, permissions, etc, than wages with this manufacturing
         | area. It shouldn't have a huge impact.
        
           | bee_rider wrote:
           | Although, in the US semiconductor companies have to compete
           | for technical people against companies doing the apparently
           | really economically productive stuff--coming up with ad
           | algorithms and playing Wallstreet shell games.
        
       | Almondsetat wrote:
       | This seems like a super easy target for a foreign actor to
       | sabotage and cause massive economic setback
        
         | beeskneecaps wrote:
         | Agreed, but I imagine the only setback is for the insurance
         | company.
        
           | lotsofpulp wrote:
           | An insurance company spreads losses, it does not make them
           | disappear. From a country's economic point of view, the
           | destruction of an economically productive thing is just as
           | much of a loss, regardless of whether a single business and
           | group of investors/shareholders experiences it, or if it is
           | spread amongst various insurers, and hence their insureds via
           | increased premiums in the future.
        
         | cogman10 wrote:
         | Nah. There are far easier targets with far larger economic
         | impacts. This cold box certainly cost a lot of money, but it
         | won't break the bank, just delay the fab construction.
         | 
         | In fact, I could almost imagine that sabotaging this thing
         | would actually have an economic boon as it would allow the
         | roads to operate again (rather than shutting them down for days
         | to move a 10mph mega fridge).
         | 
         | Consider, for example, the economic damage of the camp fire
         | wildfires. That was caused by a single downed power line.
        
           | dylan604 wrote:
           | >the economic damage of the camp fire wildfires. That was
           | caused by a single downed power line.
           | 
           | So why are they called camp fire wildfires if a camp fire was
           | not the start of it?
        
             | cogman10 wrote:
             | Named after the road where it started, Camp Creek. But also
             | named that way because "camp fire" is buzz worthy for media
             | outlets.
        
       | jancsika wrote:
       | > 280 feet long
       | 
       | There's no way the truck in the picture is hauling something 280
       | feet long!
       | 
       | The traffic behind it is closer than that!
        
         | mminer237 wrote:
         | Yeah, that photo is an older, separate very large load. They're
         | trying to do a bunch of them back-to-back so they only have to
         | figure out the logistics once. The 280' one hasn't left yet (or
         | probably been loaded), but there's a picture of it on ODOT's
         | site: https://www.transportation.ohio.gov/about-us/traffic-
         | advisor...
        
           | jancsika wrote:
           | Thanks for the link!
           | 
           | Still-- there's no indication that anything in that image is
           | 280 feet long!
           | 
           | Maybe the container in the foreground is, but the part that's
           | shown can't be more than 75 ft.
           | 
           | It's like reading a story about a Wooly Mammoth being spotted
           | in the wild, but people are only taking blurry pictures of
           | its rear end. :/
        
       | paulkrush wrote:
       | Here's an image of the huge load:
       | https://www.truckersnews.com/news/article/15677391/expect-de...
        
         | 01acheru wrote:
         | I hate Cloudflare internet... accessing a page from an
         | iPhone...
         | 
         | Sorry, you have been blocked You are unable to access
         | parameter1.com
         | 
         | Why have I been blocked? This website is using a security
         | service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you
         | just performed triggered the security solution. There are
         | several actions that could trigger this block including
         | submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed
         | data.
         | 
         | What can I do to resolve this? You can email the site owner to
         | let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were
         | doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at
         | the bottom of this page.
        
           | mminer237 wrote:
           | Here's a direct link on Ohio's website: https://www.transport
           | ation.ohio.gov/wps/wcm/connect/gov/f618...
        
             | bombela wrote:
             | I get a 404.
             | 
             | And I also get blocked on the cloudflare link for some
             | reason.
        
               | jtvjan wrote:
               | Same. I suspect they're all blocked in the EU to avoid
               | having to comply with GDPR. It's archived here, though:
               | https://archive.today/D0fQZ
               | 
               | The picture from Ohio's website too: https://web.archive.
               | org/web/20240612173428/https://www.trans...
        
       | deweller wrote:
       | > ... and 280 feet long, stretching longer than a football field.
       | 
       | Was this written by an AI? A football field is 360 feet long.
        
         | ecshafer wrote:
         | I could see a journalist that just gets confused between yards
         | and feet writing that.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | The unit itself if 280 feet long, but by the time it is mounted
         | on wheels and has a truck in front of it, how long is it then?
         | An additional 80' seems long for just the truck, but this
         | doesn't seem like it'll be a normal cab over tractor type truck
        
       | mperham wrote:
       | Any insights on why this component cannot be subdivided into
       | smaller pieces?
        
         | mperham wrote:
         | https://whatispiping.com/cold-box-cryogenic/
        
       | kylehotchkiss wrote:
       | Small price to pay for a massive regional economic engine!
        
       | sneak wrote:
       | So Intel is _literally_ too big to fail now?
       | 
       | Maybe they can share offices with Boeing.
        
       | ano-ther wrote:
       | Where does it come from?
        
       | azalemeth wrote:
       | A fun little fact is that the load on a road causes damage
       | roughly proportional to the fourth power of its mass - or at
       | least, proportional to the fourth power of the weight of each
       | axel. The US government publication detailing this is here -
       | https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/sr/sr61g/61g.pdf - in 1962
       | - and it's become something of a famous approximation ever since.
        
         | Keyframe wrote:
         | That'd mean that a twice as heavy vehicle would cause 16 times
         | more damage than the lighter one. Wild and not really
         | intuitive!
        
           | nerdponx wrote:
           | And relevant for public policy, as both SUVs and EVs
           | (including EV SUVs) become more common on roads.
        
             | cameldrv wrote:
             | Or not, because the axle weight of semi trucks are much
             | higher than EVs, and due to the fourth power effect,
             | essentially all road damage is caused by trucks.
        
               | nerdponx wrote:
               | But semi truck road usage is generally limited to certain
               | kinds of roads and isn't broadly increasing.
               | 
               | My point is that the effect of non-large vehicles getting
               | heavier is magnified beyond what people might realize.
        
       | david_shi wrote:
       | Looks like the Mad Max Fury Road caravan
        
       | ge96 wrote:
       | New idiom unlocked
        
       | rqtwteye wrote:
       | I remember listening to a German podcast about this kind of
       | transport. It's super interesting how much planning is needed
       | before such a transport. Talk to different police departments,
       | check weight limits of roads, corner radius, plan to disassemble
       | some obstacles. Huge effort.
        
       | topspin wrote:
       | k-pound? Is that a thing? 458 tons, for someone's definition of a
       | ton. It's important when using imperial lbs to use tons,
       | otherwise we 'muricans can't easily convert it into medium duty
       | trucks in our heads to visualize the mass. ~91 in this case.
        
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